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Tuesday, April 5, 2016

Creating Image Poems

During a weekend of filling my heart with the love of poetry, I published my ninth global gallery of artistic expressions online, titled Winter Wanderings. When trying to find the right image to welcome guests into the gallery, an idea came to me, downplay the litany of woes being heard about the season of winter and let everyone find the joy. To do so, I needed an image to set the tone. Luckily for me, one of our garden stores had a magnificent, lustrous, silver mannequin garbed in real fir branches as a display for the holiday season. I happened upon the perfectly posed lady while walking through the store, marveled at her sight, and grabbed for my iPhone. Since she was not at the entrance my husband and son totally missed her as they passed by.

Upon arriving home, I sorted through my photos and took the photograph of the mannequin and turned it into a digital composition with a poem using the app, PicMonkey. When looking for an image for the opening of the gallery, I decided to use the digitalized image as the lead character in my gallery and so Lady Winter evolved. She now virtually greets everyone when they enter the online gallery.

You can find many examples of image poems (#imagepoems) at Winter Wanderings. They are composed by poets, bloggers, writers, and poetry lovers from across the globe. Many of them are examples of nature photography depicting the

many styles of winter. Because I have always loved the fashion industry, Lady Winter offers us a view of her global, seasonal couture line.

Margaret Simon has asked writers to create poetry to match image poems at #imagepoems for her National Poetry Month challenge. You can access her site here. When composing image poems, we have the option of using our own images. I am working on some ideas but have been preoccupied with preparations for the upcoming #NYEDChat convos that will air on Twitter this Saturday at 8:00 am and Monday, April 11, 2016 at 8:00 PM. Monday night's convo will be our tribute chat to National Poetry Month and hopefully writers will share some image poems or as I also term them digital inspirations (Margaret coined that term). Here is another example of an original image of a historical garden site on Long Island that I turned into a flyer.

Stay tuned as I write alongside others during National Poetry Month and create new digital creations.

Now I turn my attention to the Tuesday Slice of Life hosted by the Two Writing Teachers. After spending a month writing daily slices for my Clearing a Pathseries, it will be wonderful to meet up with slicer friends and the TWT Team, Anna, Betsy, Beth, Dana, Deb, Kathleen, Stacey, and Tara, for a warm hello and virtual hug for a job well done. I felt such a bittersweet ending to the March event when I signed the SOLSC Participant Pledge tonight.

Celebrate This Week

#PeopleSkills Member

2018 Kidlithosphere Progressive Poem

2016 Kidlitosphere Progressive Poem Team Writer

POETRY FRIDAY ROUNDUP-May 2018

About Me

Carol Varsalona, ELA consultant, has had extensive experience as a director of language arts, a literacy specialist/reading teacher, national/state conference presenter, and a staff developer in multiple Long Island districts and BOCES. In addition, she is a blogger, writer, co-moderator of NYEDChat, a professional learning network (PLN) on Twitter where she communicates with various state PLNs and global educational leaders, and recently appointed Wonder Lead Ambassador for Wonderopolis. She has a Professional Diploma in School District Administration, a CAS in Reading, MS in Developmental Reading, and BA in English Education. Varsalona is a lifelong learner dedicated to energizing and impacting K-12 teaching and literacy learning through the development of thinking skills, integrated technologies, writer’s voice, and professional development opportunities. She is ardent about inviting vigor and engagement into education to redesign the literacy landscape

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